Heartbeat
by ArcticRascal
Summary: A hospital was not where Peridot expected to find herself. Then again, she certainly never expected to find her first real crush in a hospital and she never thought that a machine would ever betray her. (One-shot. Originally posted on AO3).


It all started with a crash. It wasn't a life-threatening apocalyptic crash that spelled out doom and destruction, it was more like a light bump… and a broken leg.  
When Peridot woke up she grumbled at the incessant, sharp beeping nearby. Each note echoed in her ears making it impossible to fall back asleep to the usual craziness that she called a dream. She then developed some feeling in her joints as the effect of the sleep wore away, she felt the cast around her leg. A leg she was lucky to keep after getting hit by a speeding car.

Opening her eyes slowly, Peridot initially winced at the bright light and she scrunched her face in protest. This was a main reason that she hated hospitals, they just had to make everything white and unbearable.  
This inefficient design choice did however have a few benefits, that is that any sort of colour stood out like a sore thumb and almost looked un-natural. That is what Peridot felt when she seen her room-mate sitting in one of the visitors chairs and tapping away on her phone.

Lapis Lazuli was blue like always, the monotoned queen that was constantly blending into the sea during the summer had not yet noticed that Peridot was glaring at her unsettlingly. Either that or she never cared enough to say anything. With Lapis it really could have been anything, she was a complicated person with complicated relationships and lead a complicated life.

Her taste in clothing was simple, and that's about it.

Peridot deduced that she was focused on beating the 50th level of a recent game that she had created. Peridot was admittedly a little harsh with her creations as the young tech developer would revert from a 'anyone can play it' kind of game to 'only the skilled will survive' mindset, it was as if she was a host of a kill or be killed game with the only reward being bragging rights.

"You're an idiot." Was the first words uttered from Lapis's mouth as she tilted her head at the screen and furiously tapped her phone. "Honestly, this level can't be completed by a human…"

Peridot frowned, "You wanted it to be difficult."

"Yeah, but I didn't ask for it to be impossible."

The shorter girl grinned and upturned her nose, "you're just not skilled enough."

"I'll say," Lapis smirked back, "I heard from a little birdie that you were too busy trying to beat your own level that you walked straight into the car."

Peridot grumbled a little at this. Lapis was telling the truth to her displeasure. At times Peridot found it creepy how well Lapis knew her stuff and found out about things, she could never find out how she knew and who she asked.

"I didn't walk into it!" Peridot grumbled, "I just didn't stop on time…"

"Uh huh, tell that to your broken leg." Lapis poked the cast, her eyes still glued to the screen.

The Technician felt some accomplishment when Lapis frowned and grumbled as she failed the level once again. Finally having enough she stuffed her phone back into the pocket of her denim jacket that was limply hanging onto the back of the chair and folded her arms, she looked thoroughly displeased.

"Any luck?" Peridot laughed,

"I hate you, I hate your game and I hate the fact that I helped you make it." Lapis groaned.

Peridot couldn't help but laugh at her friends misfortune, Lapis never responded and she kept her head in her hands. Now that Peridot paid attention to it, Lapis had dark bags under her eyes and she seemed tired. Her smirk dropped at the sickening realisation that Lapis must have stayed up all night after learning about the accident. It was unexpected that Lapis of all people would be this affected, it was like a shark helping a drowning swimmer to the shore or a natural disaster reverting itself.

But it was nice that someone actually cared about her…

Even if they were a huge jerk most times…

Her attention shifted from Lapis once the sound of a door opening and shutting emanated from her right. Peridot watched a girl walk into the room, she was far too distracted with the phone at her ear to notice Peridots sudden interest.

The girl was short and curvaceous, some would have considered her pudgy but Peridot found it that there was just enough in just the right places.

Also she had a cute laugh.

It was then that Peridot became conscious of the rhythmic beeping on her heart monitor.

"Do you know her?" Peridot whispered to a tired Lapis,

"Yeah, that's Amethyst…" Lapis yawned, "why? Thinking about hitting on her?"

Peridot blushed and her heart monitor skipped a beat. "W-What? No!"

Lapis grinned, a mischievous glint in her eyes as she glanced at the monitor. Peridot jumped slightly when Lapis stood up, the metal of the chair legs scraped across the floor.

"I'm going to head back home now." She pulled her jacket on, "I never got any rest and I can tell you're alright." She began to walk further away from the hospital bed, before she got to the door she briefly stopped and fluidly turned to face Peridot. "She'll notice." She bluntly stated and indicated the annoying heart monitor.

"Wow… Thanks." Peridot grumbled and Lapis left for good.

Now it was just Peridot. She wasn't alone in any way, she still had her leg cast that already had been defiled by a pen. Lapis wrote the mocking words of 'good luck' whilst she wasn't looking and even signed it to further rub it in. Having absolutely nothing to do, Peridot's eyes focused on the only interesting thing in the room.

Amethyst.

Now having far too much time on her hands, Peridot blushed lightly at the girls phone conversation. She would sometimes flip her long lilac dyed hair back and would frequently change the position of the mobile phone, she had to balance it with her shoulder at times due to one arm being in a cast.

Her cast was rather cramped, there was signatures everywhere. Some were fancy, others bold and there was a few signatures and messages that couldn't even be considered anything but the scribbles of a toddler. She didn't know if this 'Amethyst' had anyone that young around her, but it was more likely that there was just some people that possessed bad handwriting.

She walked with a slight limp, trying not to put too much pressure onto her bandaged leg and yet she still managed to make her movements look like some sort of club dance. She must have been a dancer, there's no denying it.

It was only when the girl finally finished her conversation on the phone that Peridot begin to feel the debilitating tenseness and nervousness wash over her. Amethyst looked back to her with a grin and she winked.

"Take a picture. It'll last longer!"

Peridot blushed and she swore that her heart beat got faster, the monitor was her evidence for that.

"Don't you know it's rude to stare?" She heard Amethyst add on.

"Sorry." Peridot grumbled out, she literally had nothing else interesting to look at other than a machine that produced a beep every few seconds.

"It's no big deal." Amethyst replied and waddled over to the chair that Lapis left out. "You're Lapis's friend right?"

"Peridot." She blushed lightly and the beeps got faster.

"You got yourself into a car crash huh?" Amethyst hummed, "did you leave the other driver in a worse condition?"

Peridot didn't even own a car.

"Don't drive." She forced out again.

 **Amethyst was getting closer** , that's all that was going through Peridots head at the moment. It was a warning system that she was not quite comfortable with having, as her heart monitor skyrocketed when Amethyst finally poked her cast.

"You okay?" Amethyst asked, looking between her and the over-reacting monitor.

"Yes?"

Amethyst laughed in realisation, "Oh my gosh you're such a dork." Peridot wasn't quite sure what she was meant by that but she felt flattered anyway and her heart rate monitor beeped faster in agreement. "That's adorable."

Peridot flushed bright red and the beeping went wild.

"I-It's probably a malfunction!" She tried to laugh it off.

"Uh huh, sure it is." Amethyst grinned.

Thankfully some benevolent power reached out to the withering Peridot and had graced her with the silence brought by Amethyst pulling out the plug. Didn't do much for the storm that raged on in her heart and the technician was fully aware that her chances were ruined due to a **machine**.

It was as if a silent message was being conveyed to try and stop her from wasting her life on a computer. Because if she didn't it might just stab her in the back like it just did.

"I'm going to be leaving soon." Amethyst said, "a skateboarding accident **is** different to a car crash after all."

Peridot had a mixture of emotions, she was slightly happy that she can be left to rot in her embarrassment and yet slightly unhappy at the same time. It was like the waves hitting the beach, aggressive and yet cool all at once.

"But I will leave you something~" Amethyst grabbed the sharpie sitting on the small table and wrote something down onto the cast.

'It's just going to say get well soon, isn't it?' Peridot internally groaned. She could cry out of embarrassment but she restrained herself, at least she can have some dignity left.

She never dared to look at her cast. Shortly after Amethyst had left, the nurses had plugged the heart rate monitor back in and it was beeping slowly and calmly. When Peridot did develop the courage to look down, her cast now sported a new message, a long string of numbers and a small 'Call me! -A' greeted her eyes.

The beeping went wild again.


End file.
